Category: India
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St. Francis Xavier
Faith is business. Not only for the Church, others try getting their share as well. Churches and stalls selling religious trash undeniably hold attraction for me. It must be because of my catholic youth in the catholic south of the Netherlands. For years I sang in the boys choir of the local church, was altar…
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Faith and business
According to catholic doctrine Maria wasn’t deflowered before she conceived. In her case the Church speaks of the Virgin Birth of Christ and so Maria remained a virgin even while being a mother. Virgin and mother at the same time, that’s what makes her special. Maria is often depicted as a beautiful, virtuous young woman, with or…
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Via crucis
or: the missing fingers Religion can be a true source of inspiration for Art with a capital A – examples aplenty through the ages for all the different religions. It can also inspire to living folklore and concomitant religious kitsch – examples aplenty as well. Living in the post-religious era, at least as far as I am…
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Bathing at the pump
Life of the seasonal migrant workers in the brick kilns is all about hard work, eating and sleeping in tiny huts and, as we see on this picture, cleaning of body and clothes at the common hand-pump. What pleased me in last week’s pictures of women at work in the kilns pleases me here again:…
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Pillars of strength
That’s what they are, the working poor of India! Especially the women. Without their constant effort and care the entire structure of society would collapse in no time. Prone to exploitation and even bondage, these migrant workers in the brick kilns have one advantage over their middle class masters. Their physically demanding work in relative…
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White elephant
Sometimes you meet after many years an old acquaintance who greets you with the exclamation “You haven’t changed a single bit!” The same applies to the Indian Ambassador car. Since its birth in 1957 as a clone of Morris Oxford its looks have hardly changed during all those years that it has been in production. But the “sick…
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Mind your step
Everyone who has moved around airports must be familiar with this phrase “Mind your step”. Seeing it, I immediately hear the proper voice with the right intonation warning me: “Mind your step!” But what is it supposed to mean here? Can it be a warning to those who are on the verge of leaving the…
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Backbone girl
Cleaning, cooking, fetching water, looking after the children, feeding and milking the family cow or buffalo, collecting firewood, all this and more is women’s work in many a traditional society. This Kumaoni mountain girl carries a tree home that she may even have cut herself with an axe, because in these parts women think nothing of…
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Women at the village pump
Such a common sight, but always inviting to pause for a while and enjoy. Here it’s a few women of the Gond tribe with their feet in the mud around the village pump, cleaning vessels and jars. The shiny silver of the traditional armlet, anklets and elaborate belt reflects its beauty not only on the wearer…
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Roadside entertainment
Moving images, stories told with moving images, invariably attract the attention of children, women and men. Most animals on the other hand, like the cow or bull here, can’t care less. Last week’s post spoke of the close relationship between man and cow in India, the last one almost being considered by man as a…
καιρός remembered 